The object of this invention is to create a modifiable modular capacitor-generator (CAPGEN) base architecture capable of directly converting and storing a multitude of energies; i.e. 1. (VACUA) V power, gases, space photons, spent nuclear fuels, thermionic heat, electrolytes etc. 2. replace a multitude of conventional batteries with low voltage and high capacitance per Kg, 3. replace a multitude of conventional capacitors with high voltage and low capacitance per Kg, 4. combine capacitors best quality (power density) with batteries best quality (energy density) in a single new modifiable modular CAPGEN architecture with revolutionary electrolytes, massive electrodes, 5. new methods to increase electrical conductivity and reduce electrical resistance, 6. generates its own primary and secondary electrical charges from an imbedded radiation source, and external radiation source, 7. stores its own electrical charges, 8. The same CAPGEN may be charged by an external electromotive force.
In general, capacitors that utilize carbon powders as electrodes to store electrical energy require the carbon powder to be mixed with binders to form a paste, keep a shape and be structurally self-supporting. When nonconductive binders are mixed with carbon powders to form carbon electrodes in a capacitor, the capacitor internal electrical resistance increases and the capacitor efficiency decreases. When conductive binders (electrolytes) are used as binders to form carbon electrodes, the capacitor internal electrical resistance decreases and the capacitance increases but the working voltage and amperage are severely limited. Carbon electrodes that are made to shape are described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,089,195; therein raw carbon compounds are mixed with catalyzed thermoset furfurral resin and molded into a form, the electrodes are cured then baked to about 1000° F., thereafter the baked electrodes surface pores are filled, in vacuum, with catalyzed furfurral resin and cured, then the cured articles are graphatized in partially controlled atmospheric pressure at temperatures between 4600 to 5000° F. To produce the above carbon articles extremely high temperatures must be used at a high cost in energy and labor. When graphite products described above are made into electrodes in capacitors to store electrical energy the graphite surface area is limited to about 500 sq.ft./cm3. This graphite surface area is not sufficient for the present invention.
Capacitors that utilize “glassy” carbon as electrodes to store electrical energy are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,245,313B1. Therein glassy carbon electrodes are made as described in the previous patent, except that instead of raw carbon and furfural resin, polymerizable resins are used with a catalyst to form shaped electrodes, curing the electrodes and then the cured electrodes are baked at about 1300° C. Thereafter the electrode's pores are filled as described above and rebaked at 1700° C. to obtain glassy carbon electrodes. Glassy carbon electrodes have better structural characteristics but require conventional electrolytes to enhance the electrode's capacitance thereby severely limiting the charging voltage.
Conventional capacitors that utilize electrolytes (such as lithium Li) to obtain high capacitance are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,181,545 B1. High capacitance as described therein is achieved at the expense of limiting the working voltage between 0-2.5V. The low voltage severely limits the electrical storage capacity of the capacitor. Other conventional capacitors that utilize liquid electrolytes to obtain a capacitance as high as 86 F/g are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,353,528 B1. The high capacitance as described there in is substantially achieved by testing the capacitor's electrodes in 33% aqueous sulfuric acid solution. However, high capacitance was achieved at the expense of limiting the working voltage to 0.9V and the current density to 300 mA/cm2. According to their Example 2, Table 4, activated carbon powder with an average starting surface area of 2000 m2/g was used for 22 carbon electrode samples. After the carbon electrodes were compacted the actual average working specific surface area for the 22 samples (calculated) decreased to 1385 m2/g. The table also shows that: 1. The capacitance decreases as the apparent density g/cm3 increases. The capacitance decreases as the electrodes specific surface area m2/g decreases.
According to their Table 18, the capacitance generally decreases as the activated carbon pores volume of ≤15 A° decreases from a high of 88% to a low of 53.9%. The above data also shows that self-supporting structural carbon electrodes;                1. With compaction the surface area may decrease to below 70% of the starting surface area.        2. The capacitance is greater with low density carbon powder.        3. The capacitance is greater when carbon has a higher specific surface area.        4. The capacitance is greater when the carbon powder porosity is maximized.        5. Capacitance is directly proportional to the number of positive and negative ions that react with and are adsorbed by the activated carbon atoms-molecules.        6. Capacitance is proportional to the internal electrical resistance.        
A conventional capacitor that utilizes high voltage (3500V) with no electrolytes is described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,466,536 B1. The high working voltage in the above patent is made possible due to the ceramic dielectric matrix composed of modified barium titanate powders and poly (ethylene terephthalate) plastic. Ceramic dielectric materials of this type are extremely fragile due to the dielectric thinness, thermal stress and expansion-contraction cycles, therefore each capacitor in the above patent was limited to an area of only 0.5806 cm2. To store 52.22 Kwh of electrical energy 31,351 components were assembled together, but each component is made up of ten elements and each element contains 100 capacitors for a total of 31,351,000 capacitors with a total weight of 281.56 pounds. It is problematic that 31,331,000 extremely thin ceramic capacitors at 3500V can function for years without degradation and malfunction and that damaged capacitors can be located and repaired economically.
An example of an ultracapacitor (also known as electrical double layer capacitor) with carbon electrodes and no binders is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,787,235 therein a carbon material is consolidated (solidified) at high temperature and compression. The capacitor electrodes (billets) are processed by using hot isostatic pressing (HIPing) in a “specifically constructed vessel”. A capacitance of 53 F/g is obtained by using an aqueous electrolyte (30% sulfuric acid) at 3V. The maximum energy density is 28 wh/kg. According to their Table 1, when the activated carbon material is solidified at 800° C. and 3000 psi, it looses (calculated) approximately 11.6% of the starting surface area and looses 33.5% of the starting surface area when it is compressed at 25,000 psi. According to their Table 2 the carbon density and conductivity. increase with higher compression.
According to their Table 4, example 1, when the ultracapacitor was tested at 1.0V and compressed at 3000 psi, the capacitance was 212 F/g, and 20 F/g when the capacitor was compressed at 21,000 psi.
According to their Table 6, when the ultracapacitor with organic electrolyte was compressed at 3000 psi and tested for one hour at 3V the energy density was 28 wh/kg and when the test was performed at 2.8 V the energy density was 24.6 wh/kg (by their estimate). Their data shows that as solid carbon electrodes become more dense the conductivity increases but the carbon internal surface area and energy density decrease dramatically. A significant factor is that conventional electrolytes limit the test voltage to 3V and a small change in charge from 3V to 2.8V severely decreases the capacitor's energy density. It is the opinion of this author that the controlling factor in storing large amounts of electrical energy in capacitor-battery (CAPBAT) is voltage and conventional electrolytes limit the voltage potential and therefore limit the CAPBAT overall potential.
For decades patents have been issued to convert radiation into usable electricity. The patents vary from atomic power plants to photovoltaic cells. However, to date there is not a radiation conversion system that generates sufficient power that is economical, portable and can power an automobile for a few miles.
Betavoltaic and alphavoltaic cells developed to date generally use semiconductor technology whereby a substrate (silicon) flat or perforated supports a radioactive material thereby electrons are emitted from the silicon opposite surface. An external circuit serves to conduct electrons away from the cell.
An example of transforming radiation to electricity is found in U.S. Pat. No. 2,926,268. Therein strontium 90 (90St) was used in a self discharge vacuum tube to generate electricity by bombarding a silicon wafer (a semiconductor) on one side, the excited silicon wafer emits electrons on the opposite side and onto an anode collector, thereby an electrical direct current is generated. Claims were made that a millionth watt was generated from the radiation-silicon wafer.
Some of the severe limitations of vacuum tube technology are:                1. The generated electrical power has to be used as it is produced or an external source must be utilized to store the generated electrical energy.        2. The power generated is useful for extremely small appliances where wattage is extremely limited.        3. Emitted usable radiation is unidirectional and limited to a fraction of the emitted circumferential radiation area.        4. Radioisotopes are substantially exposed to the environment or if they are insulated the insulation volume and weight may be greater than the cell itself.        5. Emitted radiation utilization is limited to a single silicon stratum.        6. Individual cells cannot be stacked in quantity due to internal radiation absorption by the substrates and internal heat build-up.        7. There are no means to utilize or remove the internal evolved heat.        It is clear that when semiconductor materials are used as a supplementary source to radioisotopes to generate an electrical current the radiation source must penetrate the silicon wafer, as a result the semiconductor structure degrades by heat build-up and fatigue.        
According to Wickpedia, most advanced electrical generators used by the United States Government in their space satellites use emitted heat from radioisotopes as the energy source.
Generally, thousands of thermocouples are assembled in series and/or in parallel to convert the emitted radioisotope radiation (heat) into electrical energy.
Some of the limiting factors to generate greater electrical current output from this technology and to be used for general purposes are:                1. Electric energy is generated by thermionic (heat) emission only.        2. The total energy is limited to a few hundred watts.        3. Due to hundreds or thousands of thermocouples connected in series, electrical resistance increases limiting the electrical output.        4. Since the thermocouples are metallic, their combined weight becomes burdensome.        5. To assemble the thermocouples multitude it becomes cumbersome and time consuming.        6. The cost per watt is prohibitive for most practical uses.        
In general, water-cooled nuclear power plants generate electricity by heating water to steam that turns a turbine and an electrical generator. By design, uranium fuel rods emit energy at high temperature that must be moderated and controlled at all times by water and graphite. The water, being in proximity to the nuclear fuel, becomes radioactive and a major safety concern.
For safety reasons, the generating plants are located at a considerable distance from the general population. Due to a multitude of systems, such as containment structure, pressurized structure, reactor container, steam generator, steam turbine, condensers, electric generator, pumps, vapor chimney tower, a large supply of water etc. the entire system becomes necessarily complicated, fastidious, expensive and nerve racking to the general public.
Once electricity is generated, approximately 30% of it is wasted in transmission lines before it gets to the consumer. The spent nuclear byproducts become a major problem as to where to store it, how and for how long to store it and for unknown future cost or problems such as decommissioning the entire plant.
For approximately fifty years, an alternate to the water cooled nuclear power plant is the gas cooled nuclear power plant or pebble-bed gas reactor. Helium gas is used in the nuclear reactor as a coolant and to turn a turbine-generator to produce electricity. A pebble-bed gas reactor contains thousands of balls that continuously re-circulate in and out of the nuclear reactor container. Each ball is approximately two (2) inches in diameter and consists of bits of uranium interspersed between thousands of graphite pebbles that are contained within a silicon carbide spherical layer. The silicon carbide sphere is encapsulated in an outer thermally compressed carbon sphere. To date no practical portable pebble-bed gas reactor or nuclear plant exists to generate electricity directly-without moving parts or to propel a motor vehicle a few miles.
According to Scientific American, February 2012 magazine, page 6 “Waste Not?” article, “In roughly 50 years of operation the United States has accumulated about 60,000 metric tons of used nuclear fuel. That is, the waste still contains around 95% of the energy that could have been extracted had the fuel put into the reactor been used properly.”
A radical, fundamental change from conventional nuclear power plants' architecture described above is briefly explained herein. Some of the embodiments of the present invention directly adsorb, convert, and store electromagnetic energy and heat emission from nuclear waste directly into electricity and helium gas without moving parts. Nuclear power plants' waste materials currently are stored at great cost, in large water tanks, metal or concrete vaults usually at the same site where they are generated. For far less money, the same wasted materials may, economically and constructively, be used to generate additional clean energy i.e. electricity and helium gas for generations. The embodiments are modifiable and scaleable, relatively easy to assemble and may generate electricity not secluded and concentrated in one site but locally, diluted and made safe to handle.
For example, the emitted energy from an encapsulated radioisotope, alpha, beta, x-ray-gamma rays and heat is directly transformed into electricity and gas simultaneously and stored, by diverse multiple ionizable concentrically strata powders within the same modifiable architectural system.
The present science in CAPBAT does not solve the practical problem of storing sufficient electrical energy to economically propel motor vehicles for long distances per charge and charge the unit in minutes or seconds.
Prior to the present invention, no practical solutions exist in science whereby a single unit battery or capacitor simultaneous generates and stores its own electrical energy.